ADA Mini-S: Riven Tanglewood

[CL]

Originally Posted by oldpunk78

anyone know what happened with ugly? hope all is well...

I don't know. I know he was having a bad couple of weeks.
I hope he's okay.

[Ugly Genius]

I'm so sorry I've been out of touch for so long. I've been meaning to write, but things just kept coming up. There was death, a fight, depression, self-pity, confusion, and anxiety. One after another, the crap kept hitting the proverbial fan and I don't know if you've ever seen crap hit a fan, but it splatters everywhere. Knocked the writing wind right out of me.

Anyway, I'm off work a bit early and I thought I'd take the time to update all of you on the progress of this tank.

Pretty much, it's pretty much the same.

Look:

Just a couple of days ago, I swapped out the DIY CO2 and slapped on an ADA Advanced System. It's too soon to tell if it makes any difference, but I'd like to think it does.

The Fissidens, Mini Pellia, and Pottias are doing the best. The Rose Moss, Mini Rose Moss, and Blepharostome are just doing so-so. Hopefully, the additional CO2 will help them.

Anyway, my sincere apologies for worrying any of you. I appreciate your concern, however. Means a lot.

And so here I am, shaken, but still standing.

[legomaniac89]

Woooooo! Glad to see you're back UG. You had us worried there for a while.

Riven is looking amazing! This has been a huge inspiration for my 10g rescape.

[CL]

YAY! The moss has gown so much! I'm so glad you're back! You've been gone too long

[oldpunk78]

glad to see you back. i was starting to wonder...

[Orlando]

Its looking really nice with all the new growth. Could get an ID on the last pic. moss?

-O

[Ugly Genius]

Thanks, guys. O, that's Pottias. It's my fave in this tank right now. With tremendous patience, it would make a stunning carpet.

I'm catching up on all the posts I've missed in the intervening weeks. Craig sold his tank! That sucks!

[Outlawboss]

Glad to see you back and typing UG.

[mizu-chan]

Happy to see you back. Hope everything starts looking up for you.
Your tanks look ace. Always will be an inspiration for me. (:

[Skrimpy]

I really like your tank. What plant/moss is that on the driftwood?

[Ugly Genius]

Thanks, guys.

Last night I decided to tear down Riven Tanglewood. Too much was going wrong with it.
The MTSs were dying for some reason; detritus covered everything, nearly killing three types of moss in the process; growth was stunted; and the glass was perpetually covered in algae and/or detritus.
This morning -- waking optimistic and with an idea in my noggin -- I decided to give this incarnation one more go.
I really do love this hardscape and it would be a shame not to at least try to get the tank to flourish.

So I took my post-waking idea and slapped on an AquaClear 20 and removed the ZooMed 501. Already, after just six hours, the change is remarkable.
I have a feeling that I may have made the ZooMed toxic in some way with the irresponsible over-dosing I did of Stability and other bio-filter jump starting solutions at the start of this tank.

Don't be impressed by the new growth of the Mini Christmas Moss, Blepharostome Trichoph, and Mini Rose Moss -- those are newly-bought as those were the three plants that almost died for unknowable reasons that I hope to soon make knowable.

I'm absolutely in love with HOB filters on anything under eight gallons. As long as you keep the water level high, surface agitation is minimal (i.e. CO2 levels remain consistent), and keeps the formation of surface scum at bay.
Were I more ambitious, I would make a one gallon sump-style HOB in which I would place a ton of low-light plants and filter the water not with sponges and filter floss, but with the plants themselves.

If the tank recovers with the new filter and plants, I may consider a carpet of some sort. I have a feeling that some of the detritus problem I have is related to the fact that there's nothing on the ground to eat up all the crap that falls there. The carpet's a toss up between UG and HC; possibly MM. Pottias, the plant on the top-most portion of the DW on the left, is also an option.

[Outlawboss]

UG, I'm glad you didn't do a complete tear-down on Tanglewood. I've been really interested in watching this tank develop. I do agree that a carpet would be helpful, as well as aesthetically pleasing.

Also, +1 on the HOB filters. It is SO easy to clean the one on my Finnex. 5 minutes and I'm done. I love that. On nano tanks like these, they do a great job of keeping things. The only drawback is the hanging off the side of the tank thing, but put it behind and make the plants grow nice and nobody ever notices because they're too busy looking at a kick ass tank.

[Ugly Genius]

Thanks, Outlaw.
I'm going to state it here: This one's on you, Outlaw. This is your responsibility. How this plays out is on your shoulders.
I took your reassurance towards my wandering musing to add a carpet plant and planted exactly eleven sprigs of HC along the front of the glass.
I'm just kidding, though. It's not your responsibility. (If it goes bad, though...)

As I wondered what carpet plant to use, I though that since I had never made a strictly-HC carpet, now would be a good time. Up until now, I've always used it as a a mixed carpet with Glosso and/or HG. I've never used it as the only carpet plant in a tank. Now might be a very good time to try a straight HC carpet.

Initially I planted Glosso, but I thought the size of the leaves would throw off the scale of the tank and due to the considerable number of shadows cast by the DW, getting it to carpet would take Hollywood-level lighting effects to pull off.

MM was a solid contender for the role, but it's too slow of a grower for my ADD-riddled brain and the darker hued green would not contrast as starkly as I would like against the already dark hues of the mosses, fissidens, and liverworts on the DW.

UG was dismissed simply because I'm using it extensively in riverrun and wanted something else here.

MS is played out by yours truly. I've got it in two tanks already.

As many of you who've read this thing from the beginning know, I'm not the biggest fan of HC as it's a pain in the butt to trim, but so are most other carpet plants, so why get picky just because HC has teeny-tiny leaves? So I'm trying it here. UG's first pure HC carpet.

[zerojoe0917]

hahaha a few days ago , i was about to ask you for some update!

nice...big change!

[mizu-chan]

Can't wait to see this start gorwing out UG. (:
I'm glad you haven't torn anything down, if you did who would my muse be?!